6. Welk advies wil je andere kunstenaars en creatives geven?

Some artists can find new use in anything and Bram Amendt is one of these people. He studied at the Design Academy in Eindhoven and cognitive psychology at the University Maastricht. Now he works from his basement atelier in Roermond (NL). With this background the combination of art and science comes easily to Bram. His love for traditional crafts, urge for adventure, interest in history and a constant drive to find out how things work turn his damp basement in a laboratory for discovery. With materials that others find useless, Bram builds installations that look both organically grown and human made. Take a look at the video of his work Life – Patterns below the interview too.

1. Which tool is essential in your workspace?

It might sound boring, but I think my laptop is most essential for my work. If I have to choose an analogue tool, I’ll go for the flatnose-pliers. Probably more because of the name than the functionality. Also the Stanley knife, very important, and the pencil too. Yeah, wait if I have to choose at gunpoint, then I’ll choose the pencil. Nothing exciting really. Oh and music.

2. How do you keep yourself inspired in your workspace?

Music inspires me. I listen to Funk, Soul, Hiphop, Electro. Basically anything that plays on Intergalactic FM, an amazing online radio station. I also watch internet porn, especially Japanese Wall porn. Please make Japanese Wall porn more known, I want more people to enjoy this! In this genre of porn there is a woman in the wall, she can’t get out, she can’t do much really. In my favorite video there is a husband and wife, and the wife orders her husband to pleasure the wall, or something like that. What interests me are the execution and details. I don’t even have to use it for an artwork, its purely the rancidity that I find amazing. In Dutch or American porn they would never take the effort to make a wall like that. Thats why Japanese porn is the best: its sophisticated, incredibly nasty, but also the most refined.

3. Why did you chose this setting as your workspace?

The space in which I work inspires me too. I was looking for an old school workspace like grandfathers and uncles used to have. I enjoyed working in space like that, I just don’t feel at home in those huge, open and modern ateliers. Here I’d like to image that a craftsman already worked here 300 years ago. I researched the maps of Roermond and it turns out that these basements are hundreds of years old. The old city wall was just outside this house and behind it are the Roermond catacombs. I’m convinced I’ll only need to break 0.5 meter through the walls and I’ll reach those tunnels. Then I can have all the adventures I always want to have.

I chose for Roermond, because I grew up here. Before I had the impression I needed to move far away, to London for example. I would like to have gone back there. I thought a big city was necessary for your network, but I’ve learned you can also maintain that from the periphery and have the advantage of low rent. That gives you so much freedom: I don’t have to accept every commission I get just to make money. That makes me much happier.

4. If you could visit the workspace of another artist or creative, who would it be, and how would it look like?

Nikki de Saint Phalle and her husband Jean Tinguely: I’m not necessarily a fan of their work, but I love their approach. Jean Tinguely started his last mega work in the forest after they split up as lovers. Purely to build and only for himself, without any funding he dedicated himself to that project. I would love to walk around there while he is working. Also when his wife would be visiting. The interaction between them I find really interesting.

5. What is the best advice you have ever been given?

Perhaps its not the best advice ever, that’s too cliché, but it’s a great advice for artists: When working on a project you follow a specific road to achieve a goal. Sometimes it turns out this road is not ideal and your goal can be reached much easier. Stubborn people won’t take that shortcut, because they already spend so many hours in the long method. Yet by doing this they miss the point, which is simply keeping the goal in mind and don’t consider your hard work as lost. The end result will be just as good by taking that shortcut. Try and break your own tradition when it can offer something good. Imagine I would still be cutting and pasting everything by hand, while I can simply use Illustrator. You could say the manual labor offers a more original work, but I think thats nonsense: The artist dictates the originality or quality of the end result, not the difficulty of the method.

Yet by doing this they miss the point, which is simply keeping the goal in mind and don’t consider your hard work as lost.

6. What advice can you give to other artists and creatives?

I don’t feel experienced enough to give others advice, so I will pass on the advice on shortcuts to others.